Themes
In Televised Morality, Gregory Stevenson uses this episode to support his claim that Buffy surrenders to authority, provided it does not conflict with her moral responsibility as the Slayer. Warren is human, and killed Tara with a human weapon; therefore from Buffy's perspective he should be punished by the human legal system. When Xander argues that they cannot rely on the legal system because it is inefficient and flawed (given the circumstances, Warren would have very likely gotten away with his crimes of murdering Katrina and Tara since there was no solid evidence or witnesses for Katrina's murder, aside from Jonathan and Andrew, and that Warren could always claim temporary insanity and since Tara's murder was somewhat accidental it could be reduced to involuntary manslaughter), Buffy says, "We can't control the universe." Despite Buffy's morality speech, Xander, Dawn, and Anya continue to maintain that Warren should be killed for his crimes, and they later quietly support Willow for her choice to kill Warren.
Read more about this topic: Villains (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)